When they arrived at the Prince's estate there were maids and butlers waiting outside to greet Lyrica. She stepped out of the car and took a good look of the place. His house was French-styled and looked like a white chateau. Outside there was a fountain and circular grass that surrounded it. Grey was carrying her luggage and they walked up to the stairs where the maids and butlers were standing. In the middle Jeremiah was there waving his hand. Next to him was a small girl with short hair and thin-rimmed glasses.
"Glory to the Valentino Empire!" They said in unison and bowed as she walked up the stairs.
"H-Hello!" She smiled nervously. She didn't know what else to say to them but she just greeted them nicely.
"How was your trip Lady Lyrica?" Jeremiah asked.
"It was nice, I came here safely thanks to Grey." She said.
"Haha!" Grey scratched the back of his head, "It was nothing!"
"This right here." Jeremiah looked at the girl next to him, "Is your lady in waiting, Ava Star."
"Star? That's a unique last name." Lyrica said to her.
"Thank you Lady Lyrica! It's such a big compliment coming from you."
"Really?" Lyrica didn't know such a compliment could mean something for her. She then extended her hand, "Well it's nice to have you as my lady in waiting."
"Lady Lyrica you actually don't shake her hand, since your the one with a higher status." Jeremiah said to her.
"Really? It's fine." Lyrica shrugged and she kept her hand extended.
Ava nervously took her hand and shakes it gently and smiled. It was the first time she felt even to another person, "I look forward working with you Lady Lyrica."
"Likewise."
"It's good to see you Ava!" Grey waved at her, "I guess you really did get to become a lady-in-waiting."
"I-I..." Ava blushed, "It was my goal throughout academy after all." She said to him.
"Oh, do you guys know each other?" Jeremiah looked at the two.
"We had a few classes together at the academy." Grey answered, "I would talk to her when I needed help in science."
"That's pretty cool." Lyrica said to them.
"I think Ava and I will take your luggage to your room. Grey I believe his highness wanted to see Lyrica and you in his office right now."
"Oh right." Grey handed over the luggage to Jeremiah and Ava and he walked further up the steps, "Follow me were going to see Sien."
Lyrica followed Grey up the stairs and when she got inside of the estate she was in awe. The interior was actually a dark wood, contrasting with the white colors outside. The carpet was a blue velvet carpet and showed some wood floorings. The house was decorated with flowers and vintage paintings everywhere. To the right was a staircase that led upstairs and Lyrica followed Grey there. Once they got to the top they went down the hallway and there were two big doors. Grey knocked on the door, but there was no reply.
"Sien you in there?" Grey continued to knock on the door, "That's weird." Grey then opened the door and inside there was an empty desk, Cassien wasn't there.
Lyrica walked into the room and on the left was a bookcase that reached to the other end of the room. There was also a big globe next to his desk. Behind his desk were big windows, but not light was shining through since the curtains were closed. Lyrica looked over to her right and noticed there was a blue couch and a blue chair. Lyrica wanted to sit on one of them, but as she got closer she noticed Cassien sleeping on the couch with his arm covering his eyes.
"Hey he's over here." Lyrica told Grey. She walked over to the couch and squatted down to look at Cassien closely.
He looks like a child when he sleeps.
"He fell asleep? Right when we got here?" Grey sighed, "Sien wake up." He said to him, "C'mon we just got here."
"Hey your highness, I'm here." Lyrica tried shaking his loose arm and when she did Cassien shot up and grabbed her arm. Lyrica was a bit shocked since he had fast reflexes.
"What the!" Cassien yelled out. He looked closely and noticed it was Lyrica, "Seriously you could've been a murderer." He sighed out.
"Hey." Grey threw a pillow at Cassien's face, "That's not how we treat guests Sien."
"Oh your here too." Cassien removed the pillow from his face.
"Wow okay, thanks for the warm welcoming. Yea we had a good trip here, how was your day."
"Tiring." Cassien noticed he was still holding Lyrica's wrist, but noticed a big band-aid around it, "What happened here?" He asked her.
"This?" Lyrica looked at her wrist, it was when Aubrey had pushed her at school. At home she placed a band-aid to prevent scarring, "I accidentally fell down at school." She lied to his face.
"Ah I see." Cassien let go of her wrist and pointed Lyrica to sit on the chair across from the couch.
Lyrica did as he said and Cassien passed a few papers towards her. Lyrica picked up the papers and noticed it was her schedule for the entire month.
"Woah isn't this kind of detailed?" She flipped through the pages and saw a bunch of words, charts, and tables each page she turned to.
"I figured you didn't read the email I sent you so I just wanted to go over the schedule and the contract with you right now before you start tomorrow." He explained.
"What contract?" Lyrica cocked her eyebrows and looked up at him, "What do you mean contract?"
"If were going to fake being lovers, we're going to need a contract."
"Last time I heard you didn't need a contract if you wanted to be fake lovers." Grey joked and sat down next to Cassien.
"Let me explain, there's a page in there that is all about this contract. It's just about expectations I have for you while we fake the engagement."
Lyrica flipped through the pages and read some of the parts in her head. Each word she read she slowly crinkled her eyebrows because elf what he was asking from her.
"Ballroom dancing? Learning how to embroider?" Lyrica read aloud, "These are expectations for you? Are you kidding me?" She said in disbelief.
"You need to learn how to ballroom dance for the debutante and other events we'll be attending. You also need to know how to embroider a hanker chief for the ceremony." He explained to her, "Jeremiah is also going to help you learn the names of the royal families in the kingdom. There are about a hundred or so royal families, so it won't be too bad."
"What..." she squinted her eyes him, "It won't be too bad?" She repeated.
"Pfft." Grey nudged Cassien with his elbow, "Not everyone is some sort of superhuman like you Sien. Give her a break I mean she just flew into Valentino."
"Yea!" Lyrica nodded her head, "Plus shouldn't I have some sort of say in this contract? These expectations don't really match actual expectations two people going out together would agree with."
"What do you mean by that?" Cassien cocked his head.
"Well I mean when a couple has expectations for each other wouldn't it be things such as being understanding or listen to each other? Communication maybe?"
Lyrica didn't have any experience in romance, but one thing she learned from romance movies was that conflict usually occurred because of miscommunication.
"She's not wrong." Grey agreed, "Also, since you guys are a couple shouldn't you be doing a bit of skinship to the public?"
"Skin ship?" Both Lyrica and Cassien weren't familiar with that word.
"You know like holding hands, hugging each other, those sorts of things? C'mon Sien you know I have more dating experience then you ever did." Grey joked.
"Shut up." Cassien groaned.
"Your highness have you have any dating experience?" Lyrica questioned, "Wait and you were making fun of me before because I had none either!" She said in an offended tone.
"He has had zero." Grey made a zero with his hand, "I've known this guy my whole life and all the girls fall for him. But, he never looks at their direction."
"There's no point in dating if my father wants to bring a pile of work to me everyday and I have scheduled to attend to." Cassien made an excuse, "I'm better off on my own."
"Yea he doesn't seem like the type to date anyways your highness with how cold you are to people. Plus your attitude can get quite bothersome." Lyrica closed her eyes and nodded her head as she pierced his head with insults.
"Alright, alright, I get it." Cassien rolled his eyes.
"Hey, shouldn't you guys address each other without honors either? I mean Lyrica you might as well call him Sien and Cassien you should just call her Lyrica." Grey added, "I mean it makes sense for Lyrica to call you Sien." Grey smirked.
Cassien looked at him hoping he wouldn't say what he was thinking in his head when he mentioned that.
"Why would it make sense?" She asked.
"Well I mean you—"
Cassien quickly punched Grey in the stomach and smiled back at Lyrica.
"Argh..." Grey clenched where he was hit.
"Grey was about to say since you are my fiancé it's fine to address me as Sien, Lyrica." He smiled.
"Is he okay?" Lyrica looked at Grey worried, "Why did you have to punch him like that!" She scolded Cassien.
"No reasons, just a reflex." Cassien shrugged.
"Yea...Just reflexes..." Grey groaned, "I'm fine Lady Lyrica..."
"You can just call me Lyrica too Grey." Lyrica told him.
"W-Wait really!" He shot up from his pain.
"Wait why does he get to call you Lyrica too?" Cassien said annoyed.
"I don't know. I feel like I'll kind of lose who I am if someone isn't calling me without honors." Lyrica answered, "It's better this way in my opinion. Especially since Grey will be escorting me." She added.
"Well then, Lyrica, I'll be at your care." Grey said proudly.
"Your highness may we come in." Jeremiah knocked on the door.
"Come in." Cassien said.
Jeremiah and Ava opened the doors and went into the office.
"Ava is here to take Lyrica on a tour around the estate." Jeremiah announced, "You do have unfinished work to do your highness." He reminded him.
"Ugh, yea your right." Cassien brushed his hair back, "You go do your little tour. Afterwards I'm sure the chef is preparing some dinner for tonight."
"Oh dinner?" Lyrica sat up like a puppy, "Do you know what we're eating?"
"Nope. Go and do your little tour I need to finish all that paper work." Cassien got up.
"Your highness, some officials from the southern part of the kingdom have also sent some documents." Jeremiah added.
"What?" Cassien groaned, "Okay you guys need to go then. I can't be distracted right now." He walked over to his desk and sat on his chair.
"Lady Lyrica follow me I'll be giving you a tour of this estate." Ava told her.
"Alright, have fun with your work...Sien." She emphasized his name just to tease him a bit.
Cassien looked over and waved goodbye to everyone as they walked out of the room together. He picked up a piece of paper and started skimming through the contents of it.
"Okay, so first we'll start with the main entrance way." Ava looked at Lyrica and showed her downstairs to the main entrance.
The entrance way had a big golden chandelier Lyrica didn't notice before. They made there way to different rooms as they got deeper into the estate. She was shown the living room that had a cozy fireplace below the hanging TV. They moved onto the dining room and it too had a silver chandelier and a long table with ten chairs aligned evenly with it.
Lyrica was shown inside the kitchen where she was able to meet the chef and workers who were preparing for dinner later on. Lyrica greeted them with a warm smile that melted their hearts when they met her eye. The chef, named Ruve, allowed Lyrica to taste the food they would be eating tonight. Lyrica was delighted and when she tried it she instantly smiled.
After the kitchen Ava finally led Lyrica to the garden. It was beautiful and had a small pond with koi fish swimming around. There weren't mainly flowers other than poinsettias, since it was the holiday season. There was also a white gazebo outdoor where Ava told Lyrica she can have tea if she wanted.
They made their way back inside and Ava lead Lyrica upstairs to show her the rooms. Ava led Lyrica to her personal room and opened the white door for her.
"This is where you will be staying." She opened the door and inside was the most spacious room Lyrica had ever seen. Inside the wallpapers had pink floral flowers, her bed was covered in stuffed animals, and she has her own balcony where she had a view of the garden outside.
"Woah..." Lyrica said in awe. She looked at everything, it all looked expensive and priceless.
"His highness wanted to make sure you felt right at home so he had the room decorated before you came here to remind yourself of your own room."
"That explains all these stuffed animals." Lyrica picked up a brown bear with a red bow tie and she smiled, "That's crazy he was able to pull this off. But, then again he is a Prince..."
"I'll be helping out with the dinner preparations now Lady Lyrica. I'll come to get you in an hour or so to come down. For now I think you can just relax and sit back." She bowed to her and left her room.
Lyrica noticed that her luggage was right beside her queen-sized bed. She decided she would unpack in the mean time while she waited for dinner to be done.
- in the Prince's office -
"What did you want to talk to me about?" Grey sat down on a chair across from Cassien's desk. He was sitting on it backwards and looked at Cassien.
"I need you to check up on this file." Cassien handed him a black folder.
Grey took it from his hand and looked at it confused. Then, he opened up the folder to see what was inside. There were a couple of pictures and documents that seemed to be letters that were copied.
"What's this?" Grey asked as he flipped through the papers.
"Your family has records of the deaths of the late Duke and Duchess of the Castillo family right?" Cassien narrowed his eyes at him.
"I'm pretty sure we do. We have most files of everything that has happened to royals dating back to the founders days." Grey nodded his head, "What's this about?"
"I need you to get a closer look onto this case." Cassien explained to him, "There's some things that need to be clarified that I need to find out."
"Did your father ask you to do this? Is that why your asking me." Grey scratched his head, "I'm going to need to get some approvals before I can get into those files. I mean you get that my dad is the head of the Valentino Knights Association, but even he's extremely strict about these things." Grey explained to him.
"He didn't."
"Wait, then why are you digging into this case? Wasn't it an accident anyways?" Grey said confused.
From what everyone knew the late Duke and Duchess of Valentino had been killed in a car accident. The sole survivor was Lyrica. Both her parents and driver has died in that accident on a snowy night, there were was no evidence to find out what exactly happened because the car had been totaled completely after it happened.
"I received a tip from someone to look into it a bit more." Cassien explained, "I'm just doing this person a favor."
"I see...Well I'll try to get to it as soon as possible. It'll be a bit harder since someone put me on babysitter duty for Lyrica." Grey implicitly stated.
"It's whatever, as long as you can get it to me soon that will be fine. Also Grey, your going to have to do me a favor and not tell anyone about this."
"Wait...Is this some sort of secret mission or something? Your not even going to tell Lyr...You probably wouldn't anyways." Grey sighed.
"What do you mean?" Cassien questioned.
"I mean, you don't want to tell her about the past between you two, I doubt you want to tell her about this either. Even if it involves her parents. You know when she finds out sooner or later what you've been doing she'll get a bit upset. So be prepared for that day to happen." Grey explained to him.
Cassien knew what he was doing was wrong. It was also contradicting since he promised he would show her Valentino and tell her about what her life was like before the accident. But, for now he needed to keep it a secret so that the situation doesn't get too big.
"I get it." Cassien nodded his head, "You don't have to scold me."
"Your highness." Ava knocked on the door.
"Come in." He said to her.
She bowed to him first before she said anything, "Your highness, dinner is waiting. I believe Lady Lyrica has already went down."
"Okay thank you." Cassien got up, "Make sure no one sees those."
"Alright, alright. I heard you already. I'm doing you a big favor, especially with watching over Lyrica. You owe me a lot of food." Grey laughed.
"We'll go out next week if I ever get to finish this stack of paper." Slammed the papers on the desk, "For now just do your best job. Now, I should probably go eat. You can head back to the training grounds for today. Lyrica will start her schedule tomorrow."
"Okay." Grey got up from the chair, "I'm not going to lie I actually don't mind watching Lyrica. It's better than yelling at a bunch of recruits and seeing them throw up after running eight miles around the campus."
"What do you mean, it seems like your living the life." Cassien joked, "Beats signing and reading papers all day."
"Touché my friend."
- in the dining room -
Lyrica was sitting in the dining room alone waiting for the food to arrive. She was tapping her finger on the table as she waited patiently. Lyrica was able to unpack her items and take a short nap before she came down for dinner, and now she was starving. The doors swung open from behind her and she turned her head to see who it was. It was Cassien and he sat at the head of the table.
"So how was work honey." Lyrica snickered.
Cassien quickly looked at her disgusted and crinkled his eyebrows at her, "Why....Just why...I'm going to pretend you didn't say that." He shook his head, "It was the same as usual for a prince like me you know." He bragged a little.
"I don't know if that's something to boast about, but okay."
The chef then came into the room with a cart of food. He was smiling joyously and placed the bowls of soup in front of them.
"Tonight you will be having our pot au feu!" The chef exclaimed.
"Wow it looks delicious." Lyrica's mouth was watering just looking at the sparkly broth, the steamed carrots and potatos, but also the main part of the dish the tender beef.
"I will leave you both to it." The chef bowed and strolled the cart back into the kitchen.
Lyrica picked up the biggest spoon she saw amongst all the other utensils and was about to take a bite until Cassien stopped her.
"Use your soup spoon."
"Isn't this the soup spoon?" She cocked her head at him.
"What makes you think that's the soup spoon?" He asked.
Lyrica took a good look at the spoon for a moment, "It's the biggest spoon, so the biggest bite...Right?" She questioned.
"That's not how it works!" He said annoyed, "Your soup spoon is this spoon." He picked up a more circular spoon, "Use this, not that spoon."
"How am I suppose to get everything with a small spoon like this." Lyrica complained.
"That's not my problem." He shrugged and took his spoon to take a bite out of the stew.
Lyrica looked at the Prince annoyed. She took the spoon he showed her and she used it to get only a small portion of soup. Even though it was a small portion she was able to taste its umami flavor and she smiled with glee after taking the first bite.
Cassien watched as she ate her food happily and he softly smiled at her.
Seriously small things like this make her happy huh.